Clinton postpones another financial-services fundraiser

NEW YORK -- Hillary Clinton has postponed another fundraiser with financial services executives amid heavy criticism from rival Bernie Sanders that she is too close to Wall Street.

Clinton will no longer attend an event in Boston scheduled for Friday that was to be hosted by Jonathan Lavine, managing director of Bain Capital affiliate Sankaty Advisors, sources close to the matter said.

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The event has not been canceled but will now be held sometime after the New Hampshire primary, which takes place Feb. 9. It is the second such postponement in the last two weeks. The Clinton campaign last week said a New York City event that was set for Thursday with executives from investment management firm BlackRock would now be held Feb. 16th.

The postponements come after Vermont senator Sanders ripped Clinton last week for leaving Iowa to attend a fundraiser in Philadelphia with financial services executives that featured a live performance with Bon Jovi.

“My opponent is not in Iowa tonight. She is raising money from a Philadelphia investment firm,” Sanders said last week in Iowa. “Frankly, I'd rather be here with you."

Sanders went on to very nearly beat Clinton in Iowa and holds a large lead in New Hampshire polls. Clinton has struggled the entire campaign with attacks from Sanders on others on the left for her heavy fundraising from Wall Street and well-paid speeches from the likes of Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley.

The campaign has fired back that President Barack Obama raised millions from the financial industry in 2008 before pushing through the Dodd-Frank financial reform law in 2010. They also claim she has the toughest Wall Street reform proposals even though they do not echo Sanders’s call to pre-emptively break up the nation’s largest banks. Clinton has focused on targeting risk in the banking system rather than size.

The postponed fundraisers are an issue for Clinton who is struggling to match Sanders’ powerful grassroots fundraising. The Clinton campaign had $38 million in cash on hand at the end of 2015, according to a recent filing, compared to $28 million for Sanders. But Sanders continues to raise money at a rapid pace from small donors while Clinton is much more reliant of larger donors, many of whom have already given the maximum amount allowed by law. So she will have to keep holding big ticket events after New Hampshire to continue to keep up with Sanders.

“She’s going to keep doing them it’s just a question of timing,” one Clinton bundler said Wednesday. “It’s not like she’s going to get any brownie points if she stops doing them.”